Compare and contrast the two philosophers of politics: John locke and Thomas Hobbes

Compare and contrast the two philosophers of politics: John locke and Thomas Hobbes - Term Paper Example

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Extract of sampleCompare and contrast the two philosophers of politics: John locke and Thomas Hobbes

Lockean political philosophy In his Essays on the Law of Nature, which he composed in 1663-1664, Locke concentrated on the duty of men to serve the others both for God’s rewards and terrestrial happiness. Locke argued that all men were basically united in friendship and had a duty of ‘liberality’ to each other . Locke specifically lambasted a notion of ‘every man’s own interest’ as the basis for natural law, claiming that pursuit of private advantage alone could not provide a lasting basis for society’s unity . In Essays Locke observed that “the inheritance of the whole of the mankind is always one and the same” , decrying fraud and competition over the necessarily limited natural riches as the original basis of all social ills. At the same time, Locke directly tied service to society and obedience to natural law with the security of property, maintaining that it was this obedience, rather than arbitrary egoism, that created solid basics for property preservation.
In Essays Locke for the first time came to conclusion that rights of property are predicated upon natural law, even though he still did not explain the mechanism of their formation. Other themes of Essays which were later continued in Locke’s mature writings included the notion of purposeful creativity of human beings, with a presumption that God created men to engage in productive labor, rather than pursuing idleness. ...

Summary

The aim of the present essay is to compare and contrast the political philosophy of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, eminent thinkers whose ideas defined the further development of early modern political thought. The comparison between their theories will be made through detailed expositions of their general arguments and contrast between them…